Surveillance systems, also known as security systems, may include security devices such as motion detectors or cameras for monitoring interior portions of a secured area of space, door sensors and window sensors for monitoring perimeter portions of the secured area of space, or other suitable types of sensors. When one of these sensors detects motion and/or the opening of a monitored door or window, the security system may issue an alarm signal that causes a siren to produce an audible alarm. The alarm signal may also be electronically communicated to a security company. The security company typically notifies the police, who may then visit the secured area of space in order to investigate.
A problem is that many of the alarm signals issued by a security system are what are known as “false alarms”. False alarms are not the result of a genuinely dangerous condition, such as the presence of an intruder, but rather are a result of a resident, employee of the building, or other user moving within the secured area of space and inadvertently causing an alarm signal to be issued. Investigations of the false alarms by the police are a waste of community resources and may result in the owners of the security system being monetarily fined.
An approach to reducing the false alarm problem is known as “entry or exit delay”, in which some time period is provided by the security system to allow the user to enter a passcode or other identification to thereby abort an alarm signal, as mentioned above. Most security systems employ an entry delay period which begins when the initial entry door is violated. Often, the security system communicates with the user to prompt the user to abort the alarm signal. The user needs to disarm the system within a programmed time period in order to avoid a false alarm. That is, if the system is not disarmed within the given time period, an alarm response will begin.
Another approach is known as “dialer delay”, which delays the sending of an alarm signal to a monitoring station for a predetermined time period. This gives the user time to cancel the alarm before emergency service personnel are dispatched. The delay period typically begins when an alarm condition has been detected. The security system will delay the sending of an alarm signal to the central station for a programmed period of time. If the alarm condition is not acknowledged within the given time period, the security system will send a report to a central station.
In conventional security systems, time periods in which the security system is turned on (armed) or turned off (disarmed) may be programmed by a user, system administrator or manufacturer. Time periods for the entry and exit delays or dialer delays may also be programmed into the system. As activity patterns of users changes, these preprogrammed times may cause an increase in false alarms.
The present invention reduces false alarms in a security system by monitoring activity within a premises over time and learning the typical movements of users and the associated time of day, day of week, and security zones of such movements. Such activity monitoring allows for natural adjustments to, for example, arming and disarming times, entry and exit delay times, dialer delay times or other processing times that are fixed (programmable) in many conventional security systems.
As discussed above, conventional security systems use programmable windows of time for entry and exit delays in conjunction with arming/disarming the system. If an alarm occurs during the arming/disarming sequence then an “unverified” type of alarm may be activated to indicate that the alarm was likely caused by a user and not a true intruder. Cross-zoning is another approach that is used for patterns. In cross-zoning, if two or more zones are alarmed in a particular order (programmable) then an alarm will be sent. Typically no alarm (or an “unverified” alarm) is sent unless the cross-zoning alarm sequence is correct.
The present system and method reduces the need to program a security system with specific times for arming/disarming to help in false alarm reduction. The present system and method monitors and tracks typical movement patterns of users and the associated time of day, and day of week, and/or zone of movement so that upfront programming of the system is not required. In addition, reprogramming is not required in the event of a change of habits or activity patterns by the users. The learned information (such as the zone that was violated, time of day, and/or day of the week) is stored and updated over time. Based on the stored learned information, the present system determines whether or not to issue an alarm in response to a trigger event, and if so, what type of alarm signal to send to a central station or other location.
In an illustrated embodiment of the present invention, a method of operating a security system comprises providing a plurality of sensors configured to sense trigger events and generate detection signals based thereon, detecting a plurality of events that occur within the security system, and storing information related to the plurality of detected events in a recent activity database. The method also comprises determining an activity pattern based on the stored information related to the plurality of detected events, detecting a trigger event based on a detection signal from at least one of the plurality of sensors, and determining a type of alarm, if any, to issue in response to the detected trigger event based at least in part on the determined activity pattern.
In an illustrated embodiment, an unverified alarm is issued if the trigger event is within an acceptable activity pattern. The unverified alarm gives a user a predetermined time period to cancel the unverified alarm. Also in an illustrated embodiment, a verified alarm is issued if the trigger event is not within an acceptable activity pattern. The verified alarm is typically sent directly to at least one of a central monitoring station, a security company, a fire station and a police station.
Also in an illustrated embodiment, the method further comprises automatically programming at least one time window to determine whether an unverified alarm may be issued in response to a trigger event based at least in part on the determined activity pattern. The illustrated method further comprises automatically programming times for arming and disarming the security system based at least in part on the determined activity pattern.
In another illustrated embodiment of the present invention, a security system comprises a plurality of sensors configured to sense trigger events and generate detection signals based thereon, a controller configured to receive the detection signals from the plurality of sensors and selectively generate an alarm signal in response to the detection signals, and a recent activity database accessible by the controller. The recent activity database stores information related to a plurality of events occurring during operation of the security system. The controller is programmed to determine an activity pattern based on the information related to the plurality of events stored in recent activity database and determine a type of alarm, if any, to issue in response to a detected trigger event based at least in part on the determined activity pattern.
In an illustrated embodiment, the controller issues an unverified alarm if the detected trigger event is within an acceptable activity pattern, and the controller issues a verified alarm if the detected trigger event is not within an acceptable activity pattern. The unverified alarm gives a user a predetermined time period to cancel the unverified alarm. The verified alarm is typically sent directly to at least one of a central monitoring station, a security company, a fire station and a police station.
Additional features of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the invention as presently perceived.